Clinton charisma once again welcomed by Democrats

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Fred Lucas THE NEWS-TIMES

Published
1:00 am EDT, Tuesday, July 27, 2004

BOSTON - Elvis is back in the building.

Tainted by impeachment and his sexual escapades with intern
Monica Lewinsky
, then-President Bill Clinton was shunned by the
Democratic Party
during the 2000 campaign.
The party's presidential candidate, then-Vice President
Al Gore
, rarely mentioned his boss' name on the campaign trail.
What a difference four years makes. On Monday, the charismatic Clinton - pundits have compared him to the king of rock 'n' roll for, among other things, his knack for inspiring an audience - gave a prime-time speech at the
Democratic National Convention

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Delegates were glad to have him back in the fold, saying he would remind voters of a time when the country was prosperous and at peace. "A personal sin doesn't make you a bad president," said Connecticut state Sen.

Gary LeBeau
of East Hartford.
Also on stage was
Hillary Rodham Clinton
, who has been controversial in her own right, viewed by conservatives and even some moderates as too liberal, too outspoken and not too honest.
Now many delegates speak of the U.S. senator from New York as a key player in the party's future. "She's one of the brightest, most articulate persons, male or female, in the Democratic Party," said
Margie Ware
, a delegate from Williams, Mass.
Though there was debate over whether Hillary Clinton could make a strong run for president someday, most delegates agreed that her husband should play a significant role in the campaign of U.S.
Senator John Kerry
of Massachusetts. They see Bill Clinton doing everything from giving rousing speeches to raising millions of dollars for the Kerry campaign.

William Curry
, a former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton administration, said Gore made a mistake four years ago in trying to distance himself from Clinton.
"People were never going to forget whose vice president Gore was," said Curry, who is not a delegate but is attending the convention. "By not running on the Clinton legacy, he was discounting his own accomplishments. Views on the Clinton legacy are deeply divided over impeachment. Otherwise, he had high marks."
Kerry clearly sees things differently than Gore, Curry said. Thus far, Clinton has made campaign stops with Kerry, and he is expected to make more in the future.
Curry said Kerry would be smart to compare Clinton's economic record to that of Republican President

George W. Bush
. "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Curry asked rhetorically. "There is not anyone, anywhere, in any way who would say yes."
Julie Kushner
, a convention delegate from Danbury, also hopes Clinton goes on the campaign trail with Kerry. She agreed that would highlight the contrast between America under Clinton and America under Bush.
"What he did for the economy, he provided a feeling of hope and opportunity," Kushner said. "When people have a recollection about what's good about their country and when it was a strong country, they remember President Clinton."
J. Paul Vance
, a convention delegate who is president of Waterbury's
Board of Aldermen
, said some
Democrats
might be concerned that a glib Clinton would overshadow a sometimes bland Kerry at the convention.
"I don't think that's going to happen," Vance said. Clinton's "speech is early enough in the convention. If the speeches happened on the same night, it might be different. I mean, this was a president who has been compared to Elvis."
Some observers warned that Clinton is still reviled by many people. "Bill Clinton still offends a lot of people in middle America," said
Joe Scarborough
, a former Republican congressman from Florida and current MSNBC talk show host who is covering the convention.
But those hard-core Republicans aren't going to vote for Kerry under any circumstance. Scarborough said that Clinton - a self-described moderate Democrat - could help Kerry with centrist swing voters. Scarborough said it was a good idea to bring Clinton onto the convention stage.
"For the most part, (Clinton's) approval ratings are going up, and there are a lot of Americans who will tune in to the convention tonight to hear Bill Clinton," Scarborough continued. "That's good for John Kerry and good for his convention."
As for Hillary Clinton, many Democrats were disappointed when she wasn't initially invited to speak at the convention. Organizers later altered the schedule to allow her to introduce her husband.
As for her future role in the party, that's a prime topic of discussion. Opinion polls taken during the primaries indicated that Hillary Clinton had enough support among Democratic voters to beat all the other potential nominees. However, polls that include Republican and independent voters indicate that she is still a divisive figure.
Michelle Mableshaw, attending the convention as a member of the New York campaign for Kerry, said she's happy to have Hillary Clinton as a senator, but might have some misgivings about her appearing on the presidential ticket.
"I don't think she would be a strong candidate now," Mableshaw said. "She carries some baggage from the years when Bill Clinton was president. I'd still maybe like to see her run eight years from now."
Ware, the delegate from Williams, Mass., called Hillary Clinton "absolutely a viable candidate." But even she agreed that a run for president would subject Clinton to stinging attacks.
"As a human being, I'd hate to see her subject herself to that," Ware said. "But when she ran in the state of New York, she handled a lot. If she runs for a national office, the knives would be out. I'm concerned about whether she could get her message through."